Welcome to Healthcare "Reform"

I just called the office of my cardiologist to check on my stress test appointment, since I had not heard back with a time for it. I was transferred to a woman who has been trying to schedule the test, who was very frustrated. She told me that she had just spoken to my insurance company and that they had told her the stress test was "still pending" and that they "had up to 14 days to days to determine if the test was needful."  Welcome to the world of Obamacare folks, and as my cardiologist told me recently, "it is only going to get worse." How ridiculous is it that when you are having chest pains, they now have 14 days to determine whether or not you are approved for a test that could save your life. As my doctor says, "This is how people die."  He told me that it will take him and his office at least 8-10 hours of time to push through my approval from the insurance. He says, "This is time, energy and money that I should spend to help you, but I must spend it cutting through the red tape which costs you time and money, and some people their lives."  This is what we are facing.... and as my doctor say, it will only get worse when the full law kicks in.

The woman I spoke to this morning commented about how utterly foolish this whole thing is, adding that someone who does not work and has not intention of working can lay around on the couch all day eating junk food and watching TV and then after the doctor's offices are closed, go to the emergency room because they have a headache, and no one will question their treatment and bill running into the thousands of dollars... which the taxpayer pays for. But because I have insurance and try to do things the right way, I'm penalized and am told to sit around for 2 weeks while they determine if they will pay for my stress test. She told me that she was not telling me what to do, but that if I happened to show up in the emergency room in Peoria having chest pains that they'd probably just take me in for angioplasty and we'd be certain if there was any problems and the insurance would have to pay, and that it would cost them almost 10 times as much as doing the stress test.  Now, I ask you... how stupid is this healthcare reform that we are moving into?